Two decades have passed since Catherine Hoskyns’ (Reference Hoskyns1996) ground-breaking book Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union was published with Verso press. At the time, Hoskyns’ book was one of only a handful of publications that considered the European project and policies through the eyes of women. In the twenty years hence, EU gender studies has come a very long way, and the depth and breadth of gender based scholarship is evidenced in a diverse and varied set of publications. In 2015 alone, at least three such manuscripts, covering various aspects of the European Union and its institutions through a gender lens, were published. Taken together, the three manuscripts under review here offer a strong overview of the current state of the field in EU gender studies. It is interesting to note that, despite differences, these three texts display some similarities in terms of theoretical approaches.

In Transformations in EU Gender Equality, Sophie Jacquot traces the evolution of the EU's gender policy from its beginnings in Article 119 of the 1957 Treaty of Rome through to 2015. Her text is rich in detail and offers an exceptionally comprehensive account of the EU's gender equality policy. In tracing the policy evolution, Jacquot divides gender equality policies into three relatively easily distinguished phases, defining each era through the gender regime that predominated in the EU at that time. The first phase of gender equality policy begins with the Treaty of Rome (1957) and extends through to the Maastricht Treaty (1992). She considers this era to be the “exception model” during which women were viewed “as a separate category” (18). “During this period, gender equality was … seen as an objective to be pursued for itself, but it took the specific form of equality within the market” (19). The second phase covers the period from the Maastricht Treaty to the Treaty of Lisbon (c. 1992–2007). This era, propelled at least partly by a new mandate around gender mainstreaming, saw a proliferation of gender policies. However, Jacquot also draws attention to the fact that this period also saw a rise in the recognition of other forms of discrimination and thus involves a shift in perspective in which women were no longer the only “minority” group in need of protection. Multiple policies and initiatives form, resulting in what Jacquot terms the “anti-discrimination model.” “One of the main characteristics of the anti-discrimination model is the subordination of the equality norm to the market norm” (177). This represents a fundamental shift in the centrality of the gender equality project, ironically arising around the same time as gender mainstreaming was embedded into the EU policy process. Finally, Jacquot views the present era (post-Lisbon Treaty) as a “reorientation of gender equality policy towards a policy more focused on the question of the protection of rights, in which women are above all envisioned as subjects of law suffering from discrimination” (18). According to Jacquot, this current phase is still under construction, and it is not clear how gender equality policies will develop in the future. In her closing chapters, she paints a rather pessimistic picture of the current path of gender equality policies.

The book is structured around these three eras, with a chapter dedicated to each era, as well as one (chapter 3) that focuses specifically on gender mainstreaming. Structuring the various time frames around major treaties offers a simple way of capturing how and when policies are first embedded into the EU institutions. However, there is also a small danger that a conflation of gender regime change with Treaty renegotiation may prioritize “formal” equality, as developed through treaties and other legislation, over “substantive” equality. Nonetheless, the divisions are useful and serve to structure the argument through an historical account of the policies, and the author is careful to show overlap within and between these different eras. Each chapter presents the history of one era, analyzing not only the developments in gender equality policy, but the forces, actors, institutions, and frames that work to shape and define the gender regime. The legal, social, and economic instruments acting on the development of the EU's equality policy are at the center of her analysis. The homologous structure of the chapters sets up a straight-forward comparison for the reader, establishing specific threads that are easily identified throughout the manuscript. It is a detailed and dynamic narrative of the policy area that accounts not only for its positive steps, but also for its setbacks.

While the structure of the argument and depth of detail are certainly strengths, what really distinguishes this text from similar accounts is the attention that Jacquot pays to economic factors, including an astute and rigorous analysis of financial and budgetary instruments. The role of economic and market forces form an important thread throughout the book. She clearly situates the gender equality policy project within a broader context of the EU as a neoliberal organization in which gender logic is subordinated to market logics. Thus, her analysis becomes interwoven with an analysis of the EU's economic goals, demonstrating an ongoing balancing act between values, norms, and policy.

In my reading of the text, there are at least two interwoven stories being told. In the first, Jacquot traces the ups and downs of gender equality policy in the EU through a rich historical institutionalist perspective. The second story, developed especially in chapter 5 and in the conclusion, moves beyond this historical analysis to offer insight into the ongoing challenges facing the gender equality project. In this, she describes a dismantling of the project, beginning not as many might expect, with the economic crisis, but rather going much further back to the 1990s. Here she unpacks the EU's crisis responses and austerity measures to show that “it is the objective of equality itself that has become secondary and only small initiatives are able to be developed in the gaps, despite the market” (178). The historical and contemporary accounts are delicately woven together through Jacquot's discussions of the ongoing tension between a gender equality norm and a market norm, which dominates the EU's policy making.

Jacquot's analysis is clearly grounded in historical institutionalism and, to a lesser degree, social-movements theories, as she uses tools including process tracing and causal temporal sequences to best comprehend the changes and evolution of political processes and institutions in terms of the EU's gender equality project. The institutional focus on questions of change and stability is infused with tools of gender analysis, including a strong reliance on the notion of velvet triangles and power relations. Although she does not identify it as such, this text is, arguably, an excellent example of an emergent feminist institutionalist analysis.

I have only one small critique of the text itself: the translation from French to English is, at times, a bit awkward. A brief glance at the French original leads me to believe that the original language is more fluid and elegantly developed. In the translation, I found myself stumbling over several unusual word choices, wondering if there was a particular reasoning behind the choice. Certainly, this is a very small critique and barely detracts from the ideas and concepts that the author develops in a sophisticated and comprehensive analysis. Overall, the text is a fabulous combination of detail and big-picture analysis and offers a rich understanding of the relationship between gender equality policy and market forces.

Jacquot's text offers a timeline of the EU's gender equality policies as a whole and focuses specifically on the supranational level of analysis. In contrast, Ingrid Bego's Gender Equality Policy in the European Union and Olga Avdeyeva's Defending Women's Rights in Europe both develop a narrower, case-study approach to the relationship between postcommunist member states and the European Union under circumstances of conditionality and accession. Ingrid Bego focuses on four specific cases: Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, and Bulgaria. Like Jacquot, Bego considers institutional change and continuity. However, the analysis here focuses more concretely on the interplay between the European and national level cases and changes at the level of national institutions. The chapters move thematically (employment policy; reconciliation policy; informal and formal institutions) rather than temporally, thus allowing for a detailed comparison of each policy area in the four cases presented. The text contributes to the literature in a variety of ways. First, she offers a detailed account of equality policy in postcommunist Europe and the interplay between the European and national levels in advancing this policy and seeks “to explain the divergent outcomes on gender equality policy in the new Central and Eastern European member states from 1998 to 2010” (2). In addition, the text offers insight into overarching questions of gender and politics, in particular, the advocacy roles of specific actors, social movements and institutions. Finally, Bego's work makes a contribution to the literature on democratization and marginalized groups, as she highlights the conditions under which membership has improved (or not) women's access to power and structures of institutional change (3–4).

The primary focus of this text is on the Europeanization of gender equality policy in the postcommunist states. However, Europeanization is understood in a rather narrow way, as the influence of the EU on Central and Eastern European states. There is comparatively little consideration of Europeanization as nation-states’ ability to influence European policies. This may be partially a result of the fact that, as accession states and new members, the four states under consideration were not in a position to influence policy that was already in place. Although the analysis is rather one-way, this narrow focus allows her to develop very detailed and nuanced discussions of each state and each policy area. While acknowledgement of the state's ability to influence European policy would add another layer to the already rich account, it is likely beyond the actual aim of this text.

The analysis and subsequent findings are valuable both in terms of individual case studies and for the broader conclusions around gender policy and European Union accession processes. Bego's findings challenge some commonly held assumptions. The Bulgarian case, for example, demonstrates that economic and political instability can be at least partially overcome by a vibrant and active civil society. This offers important insights in terms of the broader democratization literature and our understanding of the role of civil society in facilitating institutional change in new democracies.

Drawing on empirical data as well as rich qualitative discussions, Bego's research finds a great deal of variation in institutional adaptations, not only among the cases, but also across policy areas in a single state. The variation and nuances can make it difficult to reach concrete conclusions. For example, she notes that in terms of the Pregnant Workers Directive, policy “misfit is able to explain some changes … [but] it is not sufficient to explain the variation in the adoption and implementation of the other policies” (134). At the same time, her findings indicate that misfit is more likely to bring about changes in policy areas which are generally uncontested, rather than “hot” issues such as the Parental Leave Directive (135). This seems to be a contradiction in the findings, where on the one hand, misfit is able to explain changes in the Pregnant Workers Directive, and at the same time, misfit is viewed as more likely to bring about change in less-contested areas. To address these and other difficulties, Bego draws on a number of different variables as well as internal and external factors to try and uncover the processes at play within each of these cases and then to draw some broad generalizations. The complexity of analysis and the intricacy of the interplay among these various factors, however, complicate her ability to make strong, generalizable conclusions. Overall, she argues that the European Union plays an important role in setting the stage and creating a “favourable incentive structure” (139) to promote democratic values and human rights. Moreover, “in the process of adoption and implementation, non-state actors coupled with a cooperative decision-making culture and equal representation of women in politics are important for success” (138).

Despite the complexity of the variables and factors under investigation, Bego puts forth a comprehensive policy model to explain the process of policy adoption and implementation in EU-driven policy. The model (discussed in detail in chapter 6) “can be used to test hypotheses in other areas of public policy across the EU as state and non-state actors are likely to behave in the same way under similar conditions” (140). The model is quite intriguing, not only in its content, but particularly in the way in which Bego suggests using tools developed to understand gender policy in the new member states as a starting point for examining other policy processes. One of the overarching weaknesses of the field of gender and the EU is that there is, in my view, insufficient dialogue between gender scholars and the so-called mainstream. This is evident in the failure of gender scholars to engage with mainstream EU theories, as well as the mainstream's tendency to exclude gender policy from many analyses. The model put forth by Bego begins to move toward an increased exchange between gender scholarship and the mainstream in ways that benefit both fields. This is a real merit and strength of her analysis.

The third work under analysis here, Defending Women's Rights in Europe by Olga Avdeyeva, covers some of the same questions as those posed by Ingrid Bego. However, with a slightly different focus of analysis and case studies, she reaches some different conclusions. Like Bego, Avdeyeva considers the relationships between the European Union and new member states in terms of their implementation of gender policy following accession. The two texts differ in focus and, when taken together, offer an exceptionally deep understanding of a multiplicity of processes and circumstances surrounding gender equality policy in postcommunist states.

Whereas Jacquot relies almost exclusively on qualitative analysis in her text and Bego draws primarily on qualitative methods to explain some of the variation evident in empirical data, Avdeyeva makes extensive use of both quantitative and qualitative methods to offer an overview of the circumstances in all the postcommunist states. She subsequently develops more detailed observations around three cases: Lithuania, Poland, and Czech Republic. She taps into two interrelated research questions around variations in the levels of state compliance with EU gender rules and the effect, more broadly, of international institutional engagement on state compliance (30). Unlike the other two authors reviewed here, Avdeyeva's approach is quite positivist and “scientific.” She puts forth ten hypotheses around state compliance, social norms and civil society actors, and political parties and gender equality. In the subsequent analysis, she puts each of these hypotheses to test and draws conclusions around the importance of each factor. Her theoretical framework, particularly for the pre-accession analysis, is largely influenced by rational choice institutionalism and, to a lesser extent, sociological institutionalism. However, Avdeyeva views both of these through a gender lens, resulting in a feminist institutionalist analysis. What is especially interesting about the methodology is the ways in which the author melds rational choice institutionalism with feminist analysis. Although feminist institutionalist approaches are increasingly widespread, there is discussion among its proponents whether a merger of rational choice institutionalism and feminist perspectives to create a feminist rational choice institutionalism is possible. Avdeyeva proves that rational choice institutionalism and feminist analysis can successfully coexist. Her account is rigorous and thorough. It is logically developed and internally coherent. Like Jacquot and Bego, she does not identify specifically with feminist institutionalism but instead aligns herself with the mainstream versions of the theories and imposes a feminist perspective on them. In my view, in its novelty and successful example of feminist rational choice institutionalism, this is a huge contribution to the feminist institutionalist literature.

Following the initial two chapters outlining her project and the theoretical underpinnings of her work, Avdeyeva dedicates chapter 3 to the extensive quantitative data that she has generated around the accession documents and gender equality. In order to analyze “state actions in response to EU conditionality,” the author outlines “all parliamentary and government activity in relation to gender equality in the market from 1995 to 2010, beginning with existing policies on gender equality and their compatibility, or fit with EU requirements” (51). She then evaluates the degree of compatibility between state policies and EU requirements using two specific indices that she has developed for this purpose. The “Policy Analysis Index” and the “Institutional Adjustment Index” are both designed to measure aspects of policy coordination and adaptation in order to understand the extent of state compliance with EU measures (53–54).

This empirical data suggests three case studies, which Avdeyeva pursues in more depth. Using these three cases (Poland, Czech Republic, and Lithuania) she seeks to “reveal the events of the decision-making process and to demonstrate the involvement of various political actors in relevant policy debates, their motivations and strategies, their relative positions of power and influence, and their impact on the policy outcome” (81). She consciously chooses Lithuania as an outlier, and focuses much of the analysis on this particular case. She finds that, on the whole, new member states generally adapted to the EU standards. The social pressure generated by the expectations of the European Commission helped to prevent a reversal of the reforms following EU membership. In a somewhat counter-intuitive observation, Avdeyeva notes that patriarchal societies with high salience of Catholic values, such as Poland, scored higher on the compliance scales than a secular state such as the Czech Republic.

If there is a weakness to this text, it is that, like Bego, the issues and questions under analysis are too complex to be easily distilled into testable hypotheses and measurable variables. As such, Avdeyeva may try to do too much in this study. In particular, it is difficult to understand the extent to which each of the variables under analysis acts independently or in combination with other variables. The author does acknowledge this shortcoming in the conclusion, and perhaps this leaves an avenue for future studies.

Taken together, these three books offer insight into the current state of the field of gender and European Union studies. They address a variety of different phenomenon in the evolution of gender equality policy at the European and national levels. Interestingly, despite differences in method and focus, they all share a grounding in some variation of feminist institutionalist approaches. Taken together, these three studies give great hope that the field of gender and EU studies will continue to grow and flourish.